


birds, birds, birds

by codedredalert



Series: One Piece daemon AU snapshots [9]
Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Character Study, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-21 08:29:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19998928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/codedredalert/pseuds/codedredalert
Summary: Zoro, as a general rule, didn't like people with bird daemons. Funny how so many of them kept showing up in his life as people important to him.





	birds, birds, birds

**Author's Note:**

> Daemons are basically someone's soul walking around outside their body in the shape of an animal. The daemon is usually a different biological sex from the person. The type of animal usually shifts until the person is an adult, and then it settles as one form. The animal is indicative of a person's character.
> 
> In HDM, birds are associated with witches. In this daemon AU, the proportion of devil fruit users with bird daemons is unusually high (regardless of whether they settled before eating the fruit-- it's correlation more than causation), so bird daemons are associated with the devil.

Zoro had a tiger daemon for as long as he could remember. Other people talked about their daemons shifting or settling, but not him. The shape of Zoro's soul had never been anything but a tiger. 

Kuina's had been a big white and black crane, the type with a bold red circle on its forehead in fine feathers, and a vicious sharp beak. Somehow its skinny legs and skinny neck could still best his tiger in a fight. The crane's body had long returned to dust by the time Zoro heard the news that his best friend and dearest rival was dead. 

He probably got his hangups about bird daemons from her. 

===/\===

The world's greatest swordsman (for now) was called Dracule "Hawk Eyes" Mihawk, and so of course he had a bird daemon. A large black hawk eagle, perched casually on Mihawk's shoulder as the man met Zoro's challenge with a blade the length of his thumb. The difference between them was heaven and earth. 

Zoro and his tiger hadn't lost to someone with a bird daemon since Kuina died. There, where he was struck down at the Baratie, Zoro swore his ambition again in her memory, and his tiger, Suriana, roared their frustration to the blue, blue skies. 

===/\===

Princess Viví's daemon was a duck. A very exotic, very _large_ duck, but a duck nonetheless and therefore a bird. 

"It's fine," said Suriana, gently butting her head to Zoro's shoulder as he sat and watched the princess with the rest of the crew. "We'll just keep our distance." 

"Yeah," agreed Zoro. 

Vivi called him ' _Mr. Bushido_ '. He didn’t call her anything. 

Even as they nearly died side by side as candle-wax figures, Zoro replied only to Nami, just vague enough to make it sound like he was answering both of them. 

  


He slipped up just once, when Nami was down with a life-threatening fever. He had taken it upon himself to take the navigator’s post because that's all he could do. There were enough people crowding and worrying over her. 

Nami revealed that the conflict in Alabasta had started three days ago and the princess was put on the spot. 

Zoro couldn't help but watch with interest. Would the bird fly away home? Or would the princess buckle to the emotional pressure of Nami's life on the line? 

"We need to sail as fast as we can to Alabasta. And to do that, we need our navigator!" declared Vivi. Her duck gave a loud quack of support. 

How greedy, this princess was. To have her cake and eat it. To have Nami and all of Alabasta too. 

It was a good answer. Zoro found himself grinning. 

"I like your guts," he said and it was meant for her, but Vivi didn't seem to have heard him. 

  


In the aftermath of felling Baroque Works and the Warlord Crocodile, the princess made sure they were fed, welcomed and harboured safely in the palace. 

Luffy and Nami extended the offer for Vivi to continue sailing with the crew. Luffy was convinced the princess ought to join them. Nami said it was Vivi’s decision but despite all the sensible words and strict conditions, it was clear that she hoped Vivi would come too. Zoro said nothing. 

He was friendly towards the princess. If she joined, she joined. If she didn’t, she didn’t. 

He was certain she wouldn’t join. 

  


They broke through a marine blockade to get to the meeting place where they were supposed to pick up the princess. 

“This is pointless. She’s not going to be there,” muttered Suriana and Zoro nudged her. 

“Captain’s orders,” he reminded her, and she huffed. Captain’s orders were absolute, regardless of what Zoro or Suriana’s opinions might be. That had been the bargain struck when Luffy freed them so long ago at that East Blue marine base. Having this rule was the only way a pair as prideful as Zoro and Suriana could bow their heads to another. 

"Look she came!"

Oh, what? Zoro looked up in surprise. 

The crew rushed to the shoreward side of the _Merry_ , where a figure with electric blue hair waved to them from the cliffs, her ostrich-sized duck daemon by her side. 

Well, damn. She actually showed up. Right on time, too.

For a split-second, even Zoro thought she might come with them. 

"I came to say goodbye!" the princess of Alabasta shouted through the loudspeaker. 

The rest of the crew was devastated. Nami convinced Luffy to leave quietly but they all cried for hours. Zoro was basically the only fully-functional crew member for the entirety of Alabasta's territorial waters, and for a good stretch after that as well. 

Suriana looked at Zoro, as if to say _'see?'_ , full of condescending vindication in that way only cats could be. 

He nodded and let his hand rest on her head. They had both known from the beginning that the princess wouldn't stay. 

Birds never did. 

===/\=== 

Nico Robin's daemon was a falcon, which was only one of a myriad of reasons to distrust her, the top of the list being she had been their mortal enemy literally four days before. 

"You made me live when I wanted to die. Take responsibility," she said to Luffy. Luffy, being the idiot captain he was, agreed. 

The incomprehensible woman won over the rest of the crew easily. So, despite Zoro's misgivings and Suriana's unabashed growls at the intruding falcon daemon, he had to hold his peace. Captain's orders-- Nico Robin was crew. It didn’t matter whether Zoro liked it or not. 

"Are they always this cheerful?" she asked him. 

"Yeah," replied Zoro grudgingly. 

"Really?" Nico Robin smiled and Zoro's tiger bared her teeth in response. 

  
  


"I don't trust you," Zoro told Robin bluntly as they trekked through the forest of Jaya in search of the Southbird. "Don't forget." 

Under the tropical canopy, the gloom of the foliage became darker still with the darkening sky. With Suriana's nocturnal sight, Zoro was confident that he would be the first to find the bird. He started off deeper into the jungle, but Robin didn't follow. 

“We should tell them," Robin's falcon said to her. She nodded and met Zoro's eyes as he turned to look at her. 

"That way is back where we came from," she said, just as a strange 'choh' birdcall sounded. "Oh, that sound… this way. Be careful, there's slime here." 

And just like that, she walked off into the jungle leaving Suriana agitated and Zoro speechless. 

  
  


The strange woman continued like that -- amiable and reliable, fitting in with the crew as a calm and quiet presence, winning Nami over with gifts and that unknowable code that made women band together. She kept trying to win Zoro over too, always trying to involve him in conversation. 

She was… helpful. Easy to work with. He didn’t trust her like he trusted the princess of Alabasta, but he trusted that she was invested in staying, at least for the time being. She would play the part of a crewmate and friend properly, even if only to serve her own mysterious designs. 

She could fight. Her predatory daemon hinted at that, but in the unexpected battle royale on sky island, she proved it. She and Zoro were in the last few standing. 

"Which of you should die?" asked the self-styled god of Skypeia. "Will you fight each other, or shall I choose for you?" 

Zoro glanced over to Robin. 

"... Hey, you wanna?" 

"No, thank you." There was something derisive and almost offended in the way her chin dipped as she said it. Her falcon ruffled its feathers. Zoro nodded. 

"Me neither,” he said, and it was true. 

The two sky island inhabitants echoed them. They stood side by side as the heavens parted and they were struck by lightning.

  
  


In Water Seven, the _Merry_ was pronounced dead. 

Usopp's chameleon went off like fireworks. He challenged Luffy in a fit of anger, a transparent cover for his grief. The fight was painful to watch and the outcome was as expected. 

On top of that mess, Robin was missing, apparently in the company of some mysterious stranger. 

"I'm going to look for Robin," Sanji said to Zoro. "Want to come with?" 

Sanji was worried for her. Sanji got attached to people too easily. It showed from his goat daemon, Zoro supposed. Sanji always desperately wanted a herd, wanted people he could call home. More so now that _Merry_ would be scrapped. 

"No. I'll stay and see what happens," replied Zoro. There were too many moving parts. Usopp had left them. Robin was missing. They had no home ship and their captain was grappling with the heavier parts of his role for the first time. Zoro knew where he was needed. Besides, he wanted time to think. 

Robin was smart and strong. She had eluded the World Government as a child and had a bounty which stood her in the stronger of the crew. If Sanji didn't find her, or if she didn't come back on her own… 

Well, she was a bird after all. 

  
  


Robin didn't come back, so Zoro stepped up and told them to expect the worst. Nami and Luffy were upset but Zoro only spoke the truth. 

If he believed that she was a friend and she was not, his blade would waver and that could mean his death. 

  
  


They met Robin in that mansion along with the government sponsored assassins, the CP-9.

She left. It was like a bitter 'I told you so'. A visceral slap across the face. Another bird, out of reach. 

The story came out, in bits and pieces. She had been baited and taken, she had been forced, she did it for them, she hadn't really left. 

It would be so much easier if Zoro could tell himself she betrayed them and that was the end of it, but somehow, he couldn't quite make himself believe that. 

He fell in battle beside his captain. 

  
  


"We'll get her back." Suriana flexed her paws, picking at the lacquered flooring of the runaway sea-train as they pursued Robin to Enies Lobby. 

"... Yeah. Captain's orders," he said. 

Suriana's ears flicked.

"That's one of the reasons," she conceded. "But-" 

"Don't," interrupted Zoro, voice rough. 

  
  


They got Robin back. In the following celebration and recovery at Water 7, Zoro and Suriana finally had time to return to their thoughts. They sat on the roof of the hotel, alone but within earshot distance of the crew on the streets below if they were needed. 

"She’s ours, Zoro." Suriana lay flush along his side, comforting and a clear sign to anyone who came across them that he wanted to be left alone. “We can’t handle this like we did the duck princess.”

Zoro grunted and took another swig of beer from the bottle he was nursing. She was right. Besides, hadn't he already said it earlier before they had first faced-off against the CP-9 and protected Iceberg? He needed to make a decision. There were too many useless doubts and emotions taking up his concentration. It made him weak. It was better to just accept that Robin and her falcon were here to stay. 

“I need a stronger drink,” he muttered and Suriana rested her chin on his knee in sympathy. 

“I know,” she rumbled lowly. “I don’t like it either. But she really is crew. We protect her with our lives and she does the same back.” 

Zoro considered this. Considered the determined survivor and fighter who freely went to Enies Lobby in seastone handcuffs to give her crewmates free passage out of Water Seven, who was finally brave enough to say she wanted to live when they had torn into Enies Lobby and lined up to hear her answer to their captain. She had long proved she would fight and die for the crew. She liked tea and quiet, and her eyes came alive talking about cute things and long dead civilisations. There was no doubt she had carved out a place for herself on the _Merry_ , and would have the same place on its successor, or any ship of the Strawhat Pirates.

Zoro twisted away from the wall he was leaning against and held up his index finger to his daemon. 

“Fine,” he said. “We live with _one_ bird.” 

He felt a weight drop from him with that decision. Suriana nodded.

"We’ll welcome them home later," she purred, and Zoro smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write a zoro-centric thing bc he's one of my top 3 op boys and suddenly I realised every character who I headcanoned with a bird daemon was someone Zoro had Issues with. I re-read parts of the manga to be sure and ya he's kind of cold to them at the start? (and super tolerant to ppl I hc w cat daemons but that's another story for another day ~~or maybe never~~ )


End file.
